The present invention relates generally to kernel mode protection, and more particularly relates to an apparatus and method that enforces a security perimeter around cryptographic functions.
The concept of privileged separation of software processes is known in the art. Having one software process work in a privileged/secure environment and another software process working in an unprivileged/non-secure environment is typically controlled by the hardware within a processor. The hardware that supports privileged separation is fundamentally integrated throughout the processor mask. Integrating the hardware throughout the processor is expensive and increases the size of the processor. Smaller processors, such as digital signal processors (DSPs), do not include privileged separation hardware features. The hardware is not included in the processors to keep the size and cost of the processors down.